Dense ceramic bodies are traditionally produced by sintering green powder compacts at high temperatures, in a process that is time and energy intensive. For example, zirconia traditionally requires several hours at 1400° C. Although electromagnetic and electrical field assisted sintering techniques (FAST) allow shorter times and temperatures, there remains a need in the art for techniques that further reduce the energy requirements and cost.
One of the key issues in manufacturing solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is the complexity of sintering the ceramic multilayers constituted from the anode, the electrolyte, and the cathode. These difficulties arise primarily from differential sintering, where sintering of one layer constrains the sintering of the other. In co-sintering of metal-ceramic laminates, these effects can produce distortion and delamination. There remains a need in the art for to reliably produce the ceramic multilayers for SOFCs.